Titanic star Leonardo Dicaprio wanted to give up acting after the film that made him a household name.

The Aviator actor, 32, admitted that after his leading role alongside Kate Winslet, he was tempted to quit Hollywood for fear of becoming, "another piece of cute meat".

Yet even adoration from swooning teenage magazines couldn't take Leo away from his first love of acting.

Speaking to Newsweek's Oscar discussion alongside other actors, Leo admitted: "It was pretty disheartening to be objectified like that. I wanted to stop acting for a little bit."

But there were positives too, he added: "It changed my life in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I can't say that it didn't give me opportunities. It made me, for the first time, in control of my career."

After a host of critically acclaimed films such as Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, Leo is more passionate about acting than ever, he said: "There's no other art form in the world that affects me more. There's nothing that I walk away from feeling transformed by the way I do with cinema."